Jews, Choose! (An Exhortation in Honor of Chanukah)

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  “A blogger writes about how one of Judaism’s holiest days ended, for her, in a strip club, while elsewhere a guy strolls into a tattoo parlor requesting a Star of David. Two women exchange wedding vows in a Jewish ceremony, and hipsters toss back bottles of HE’BREW, The Chosen Beer…. couldn’t have seen these ...

The Real Story of Chanukah

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With “the holiday season” now upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to share a few thoughts with you about Chanukah, the Jewish Feast of Dedication. Personally, I’m not a big fan of typical Chanukah observances for one simple reason—we tend to let them steal God’s thunder, so to speak. How do we do this? ...

Deviants Wanted, Messianics Need Not Apply

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Our local Jewish newspaper here in Phoenix lists thirteen local Reform synagogues or congregations—a little more than a quarter of the congregational listings.  Add to that the six listings for Conservative congregations, and the Reform-Conservative majority rockets past a third of all organizations listed.  The Metropolitan Phoenix and surrounding areas' Orthodox--the expected preservers of Torah, tradition and ...

The Brightest Star?

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Lindsey Miller laments about Pesach in Spain in her recent article, "The Brightest Star."  While schooling in Sevilla, she was unable to find a Passover celebration amidst the overwhemingly Catholic city, and instead found herself ogling the magnificent display of Domingo de la Resurreccion—the local celebration of Easter.  One of the things she noted about the people of Sevilla ...

The Great American Jewish Placebo

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In a recent article, George D. Hanus writes, "The United States... is a country of immigrants.  For centuries, wave after wave arrived on these shores, fleeing persecution, hoping to better their economic condition and merge into the mainstream of American society.... Immigrant Jews rapidly learned English, adopted American dress styles and sent their children to colleges ...

Do We Believe?

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This was the question that the World Jewish Digest asked this past high holiday season in light of a 2006 Harris Poll "showing that just 30 percent of Jews in a nationwide survey said they were 'absolutely certain' there was a God."1  According the issue's cover story, 76% of Protestants, 64% of Catholics, and 93% ...